Should There Be Limits?
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Posted by Colin Harvey Dec 10, 2008 |
This was recently posted on a discussion group (the source was unattributed) under the guise of censorship:
"The legal world is buzzing at the announcement last week of the prosecution of 35-year-old civil servant Darryn Walker for the online publication of material that Police and Crown Prosecution Service (CPS)
believe obscene.
This is the first such prosecution for written material in nearly two decades - and a guilty verdict could have a significant impact on the future regulation of the internet in the UK.
The case originated in summer 2007, when Mr Walker allegedly posted a work of fantasy - titled Girls (Scream) Aloud - about pop group Girls Aloud.
The story describes in detail the kidnap, rape, mutilation and murder of band members Cheryl Cole, Nadine Coyle, Sarah Harding, Nicola Roberts and Kimberley Walsh, and ends with the sale of various body parts on eBay."
Apparently, the latest craze is Real Person Slash (I'll leave it you to decide what 'slash' stands for...)
and this cropped up as an example of an RPS writer being prosecuted.
As a writer, it was perhaps inevitable that when I first saw this post, my initial thoughts were "bloody government, reining in our civil liberties." But the more I thought about it, the more uneasy I became, for a variety of reasons, which I'll post about next time.
